That presents some logical issues. Specifically, it makes no sense that a flashlight would do anything for you in broad daylight. But I get where you're coming at, you want to make the world more organic, so let me straighten that out for you within that framing.

Keep in mind, we're just talking here, there's no plans right now to implement a system, but purely for the sake of argument we could, say, reduce the player's perception by one during night or in dark areas (Such as the sewers, or perhaps some buildings, since electricity isn't in abundance), and then resolve it if the player is carrying a flashlight or if they have an infection (Such as feline) that allows for better vision in the dark.

Wahn wrote:Not sure if the game mechanics will support a "have this in the inventory and your perception goes up" item.

There's nothing particularly difficult about it from a coding angle. This does create a new logical issue, however. Specifically, wouldn't the flashlight immediately die? Contrivances regarding flashlights and poor battery life are nothing new in gaming, but the timescale is such that you're burning through entire nights in but a few turns. I imagine it wouldn't last very long.

If the 'binocular that just gives a permanent perception boost' is a thing maybe add a line to your description mentioning you have it? That way its not quite as forgettable.

Also were there any plans on fixes for the navigation menu for when it gets to big? I don't recall which interpreter I'm using right now but it doesn't have a scroll bar so sometimes I have to click a location before I hit continue to display the rest of it. Or perhaps is there a good interpreter that does include a scroll bar?

edit: Or rather for any permanent stat boosts that don't come from an inventory item or a perk there should be a line somewhere (probably in desc) that mentions it.

userpay wrote:Also were there any plans on fixes for the navigation menu for when it gets to big? I don't recall which interpreter I'm using right now but it doesn't have a scroll bar so sometimes I have to click a location before I hit continue to display the rest of it. Or perhaps is there a good interpreter that does include a scroll bar?

Even sorting the nav list alphabetically would be a nice step forward from the jumbled mess it currently is... I tried to do that once, but due to the only very vague documentation that exists for the not that clearly defined inform language, I failed in the end. I remember that I could randomly jumble the list, but an alphabetic sort failed because of... I still don't know what.Other than sorting, maybe converting the list into two rows side by side could solve some room issues with it being to long - getting that off the ground in the inform code though... I've run out of patience with inform to try.

Savriss wrote:What about making more places lead off of established hubs? If you're only going to a place for one person, surely they could lead off the more generic points?

Hmm... that might be an idea, yes. It'd certainly cut down on the nav-list spam if we could connect some places together and leave their nav points out of the list. For example, after learning the location of the burned-out chapel, a "Not too far to the east is the burned-out chapel you visited before." could be added to the red light district room description and an exit ease be opened...

Though I do foresee some people complaining about such more connected areas. When I wrote the farm, I already got someone who said that 11 rooms was too hard to find their way through

Savriss wrote:What about making more places lead off of established hubs? If you're only going to a place for one person, surely they could lead off the more generic points?

Hmm... that might be an idea, yes. It'd certainly cut down on the nav-list spam if we could connect some places together and leave their nav points out of the list. For example, after learning the location of the burned-out chapel, a "Not too far to the east is the burned-out chapel you visited before." could be added to the red light district room description and an exit ease be opened...

Though I do foresee some people complaining about such more connected areas. When I wrote the farm, I already got someone who said that 11 rooms was too hard to find their way through

The difficulty with that you cannot make rooms suddenly appear. I believe they also have to be in existence and connected, so finding the RLD (for example) would lead to those other rooms. That is why the stairs up to Dr. Mouse's lab already exist but are purposefully blocked when you arrive at the Hospital initially. You could do the same, but then you'd have loads of these unusable directions and a mess more 'instead of' rules to bog down the system.

I should probably check around before I put this out but are the any Alien enemies? And by that I mean like the little gray/green men who kidnap people and cows and anal probe them? Because if not there totally should be. Maybe an event that if you rest you have a random chance of being abducted by the aliens who try to probe you. You could fight and if successful they would crash in Ross... Er the dessert or a farm and they become an enemy type there. If you don't resist.... I can't figure anything out but the probe you for a few hours and they drop you back where ever you were. I guess have it repeatable until you beat them up and make them crash.

Alternatively, is it possible to filter the nav list depending on location?

Such that, while at the Campus, the Football Wolfman lair will show up in the nav list and the PC can navigate to it but neither occurs when at, say, Zephyr Industries? Instead, a message could show 'You're pretty sure that you need to be at 'X' to reach that'.